


Sins of the Fathers

by realcasually



Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: AU, F/M, Gen, Humanstuck, Minor Character Death, Stabdads
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-14
Updated: 2013-10-10
Packaged: 2017-12-26 13:20:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/966402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/realcasually/pseuds/realcasually
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When their fathers, collectively known as the Midnight Crew, are captured, four kids with... less than typical skill sets for their ages set out on an impromptu rescue mission, crossing paths with the seedy underbelly of the city and the law, and learning some very interesting things in the process.</p><p>And oh, yes. There will be blood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Spades Slick growled as the rough hessian sack was torn from his face, squinting through his one good eye at the figure standing over him. Although he stood back in the shadows, they’d crossed paths often enough that the mobster could recognise him immediately.  
“You.”  
The word was spat, laced with enough venom to physically wound someone. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t.  
“Yes, Spades. Me.”  
Slick threw himself at the other man, desperately straining at the ropes that bound him to the wooden chair. Although it looked surprisingly flimsy, it held tight, leaving him only able to snarl and swear.  
Which, of course, he did quite profusely.  
“You fuckin’ slimeball! When I get outta here I’m gonna break you open like a fuckin’ egg! You hear me? I’m gonna make you pay for-”  
His anger was cut short when the other man reached over to a small tray beside him, not unlike the medical trolleys upon which doctors and nurses stowed their instruments mid surgery.  
In fact, a lot of the instruments on the little tray looked a lot like things you’d use in surgery. Very messy surgery, anyway. Surgery that involved big guns and even bigger knives. Knives that the man’s white, manicured fingers were starting to curl around.  
“Try not to speak so loudly, Spades. You’ll wake up your friends.”  
It all came back. While he was sleeping, while the kid was out... two of them had burst in, grabbed him, got the better of him somehow, they’d dragged him here (wherever here was)... had they gotten the rest of the crew too? Had they gotten the kid...?  
“YOU ROTTEN BASTARD! I’LL FUCKIN’ KILL YOU-”  
“Empty threats, Spades. I don’t think you’ll be doing a whole lot of anything at the moment. Now... I think it’s high time we had a little discussion.” He stepped forward then, calm malice glinting in his cold, green eyes.  
The screaming got a whole lot louder.


	2. Chapter 2

Aradia’s first clue that something was wrong was that the door was open. Diamonds Droog was infamous for being organized, and leaving the door wide open like that was very uncharacteristic of him.  
Her second clue was that, also uncharacteristically, there were police all over the place.   
Aradia had been raised to be cautious of the law. As the daughter of one of the city’s most dangerous gangsters, and planning to follow in her father’s footsteps, it paid to be. Which is why she didn’t immediately dart over to discover what had happened to Droog, but instead hung back, pulling out her phone to call the one person she was sure would already know what was going on.  
Sollux was already speaking as soon as the call went through.  
“AA, whatever you do, don’t go back to your houthe. I don’t know how, or when, but the copth have our dadth.”  
“They what?!” She cursed herself for raising her voice, slipping back the way she had came, putting distance between her and the police.  
“Tavroth and I are at the Thtation, which I’d like to point out that you only named it that to make fun of my lithp. Our houtheth were buthted wide open and there were polithe everywhere.”  
“Dammit…” Aradia glanced back towards her home once, before nodding and starting off in the other direction, heading for an old pipeline leading underground, wrapped in yellow CAUTION tape, which she ignored.   
After all, she’d put it there.  
“I’m on my way.”  
“Good. I thuppothe you’ll be alright from here on in, becauthe unfortunately I have to leave you here. I’m getting another call.  
“Who from?”  
“Gueth who.”  
***  
The string of profanities that normally followed Karkat Slick around was unsurpisingly in full swing today. You’d be swearing your head off too, if you were the son of the city’s most well-known mobster and you were being chased be a squad of policemen.  
The small Bluetooth headset in his ear squawked once and then his head was filled with the raspy voice of one Sollux Deuce, his best friend and technical genius.  
“How ith it, KK, that out of ALL of uth, even TAVROTH, YOU’RE the one who getth your butt chathed by the copth?”  
“Oh, just shut up for a fucking minute and help me out, asshole! I can’t get to the pipeline from here, not without leading these fuckers straight to it,” Karkat snapped. “Give me a route already.”  
“Okay, okay, calm your titth. Where are you?”  
He shot a glance back: still hot on his tail. No time to stop. Bursting out of an alleyway, he grabbed onto a street sign (sneaking a glance at it as he did so), using the momentum to fling himself left and keep running, way ahead of the police as they paused a split second to figure out which way he’d gone.  
Even as they resumed the chase, easily picking out the black-haired boy’s figure retreating rapidly, he had already gained precious time.  
“Still there?”  
“I’ve got nothing better to do with my life.”  
“Shut up. I’m heading down Main St now.”  
There was a quiet mumble of “Main Thtreet…” and the tapping of keys, before Sollux, all business again. “Right. I need you to head for the nearetht CCTV camera tho I can get a thenthe of exactly where you are. There’th one on the corner of Main and Jefferthon.”  
Karkat nodded, even though his guide couldn’t see it. “Jefferson… on it.” Pounding echoed in his ears, though whether it was his feet or his heartbeat, he could no longer tell. He feinted left to ditch the police, if only for a moment, then circled back around the block, talking (read: yelling) rapidly as he ground to a halt.  
“Corner of Main and Jefferson and four cops, right behind me. Talk. FAST.  
"You thee a camera jutht above you? On the wall there?"  
He looked, nodding. "Yeah. You can see me?"  
"Of courthe I can. Who do you take me for? Wave to me, dickhead."  
Karkat gave the watchful electronic eye a one-fingered salute. The grainy voice in his ear chuckled. "Love you too, man. A couple of hundred meters ahead of you, there’s a thubway entrance. Get down there and thee if you can ditch them in the tunnelth. Trick them into thinking you took a train or thomething.”  
He gave another little nod to the camera and tore off towards his new destination, shoving his way past people hurriedly.  
Another glance back. The police had regained their lost distance and were closing in fast. He had to keep his lead by any means possible. Putting on more speed, he bolted down into the tunnel, not bothering with the stairs as he slid down the railing, knocking over at least one little old lady in the process.  
His sharp eyes picked out a man on the train dressed similarly to him. Very similarly, and that set him thinking. Maybe… if he timed it right…  
Yeah. This could work. He ran forwards, already sticking his arm out for a clothesline.  
***  
The four policemen barreled down the stairway after the boy, eyes flitting around, trying to catch sight of him. There! On the train! He flitted onto the train, going down for a second before coming back up, hood on. The kid had obviously pulled his hood up to try and trick them, letting the train drag him away from them as they searched the crowd for his shock of spiky black hair. The one in charge stuck his foot in the door just before it shut, slipping in and angrily grabbing the wrong guy.  
What?  
***  
Karkat laughed, pressed against the tunnel wall while he watched the train pull away, the police officer inside still looking slightly stunned as he was berated by the guy he himself had knocked over, knowing they’d see him go into the train and see a guy in an identical hood (from the back) come up. Cops jumped to conclusions.  
He put a finger to his ear again. “Paging Dr. Asswipe. I’m good.”  
“I know. Thubway thtations have camerath, you know,” Sollux chuckled. “That was a nithe move. Pity they won’t have any record of it.”  
“But we will, I’m guessing?”  
“Downloading ath fatht ath I can. Now hurry up and get down here: follow that tunnel a couple hundred meterth down until you find the thervithe entranthe. You’ll know where to go from there.”  
“On my way. Don’t start the party without me.”  
“Why would we include you in the party?”  
“Asshole.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope that Sollux's lisp isn't too annoying to read...


	3. Chapter 3

The patter of feet down the dark tunnel turned heads as Karkat burst into the dim glow of the Station, panting a little and glancing around at the other three occupations of the gloomy room.

“Oh, of course, I’m the last one.”

“Yeth, yeth you are.”

A sardonic chuckle pervaded the air from the direction of an enormous rig of computers, screens, and keyboards that enshrouded Sollux Deuce, resident computer expert and also (in Karkat’s opinion) resident insufferable douche. He was, after all, his best friend: there had to be something wrong with him.

“Shut your face, Thollux. We’ve got more pressing issues to deal with, don’t you fucking think? Like, oh, I don’t know… our fucking DADS being CAPTURED?!”

“Calm down, Karkat.”

This third voice, soft but firm, came from the tactical brains of their operation. Aradia Droog. Her hip length black hair never seemed to get in the way as she moved, pulling up a chair and crossing her legs as she sat.

“But you’re right. There’s no time for silly petty arguments. That goes for both of you, okay?”

“Okay…”

“…Okay.”

She nodded. “Good. Now, the police were all over our houses, and it’s not like our dads would report a break-in or something. The burglar wouldn’t be dumb enough anyway.”

Karkat rolled his eyes. “So, like every asshole in the room’s already guessed, our dads fucked up somehow and the cops got them.”

“Well… yes.”

There was silence for a pause before the room’s fourth occupant spoke up.

“Uh… so what do we do?”

Tavros Boxcars hobbled forward, the silver braces on his legs clinking a little as he stumbled.

“What do we do? I would’ve thought that was obvious.” She sat back, grinning in what was obviously supposed to be a smug manner, but instead was just kiddishly excited. “We go get them back, obviously.”

There was silence. And then “You’re completely fucking bat shit loop the loop insane.”

Aradia’s grin turned to a pout. “Karkat-“

“What the fuck are WE supposed to do?! Four kids, one a cripple- no offense, Tavros- (who didn’t even get the chance to stutter out a reply) who the cops themselves are probably looking for right fucking now, and you want us to track down public enemies one through four and spring them from the fucking feds?!”

“Calm down, Karkat. If you’ll just listen, I’ve-“

“This won’t work. There’s no fucked up parallel universe in which this will work. No alternate timeline. The apeshittery of this plan is a universal constant, an absolute in the time-space continuum. Nobody could make this work, let alone-“

“KARKAT.”

When Aradia Droog shouted, you sat your ass down and shut your mouth and listened. This was no exception.

“Do you want your dad back. Or not?” He nodded dumbly and she pursed her lips. “Good. I want my dad back too. Sollux wants his dad back. Tavros wants his dad back. And we can do it.” She held up a single finger, the endless work done on the manicured nail undone many times over by its owner’s love of digging in the dirt, to quell complaints. “Think about it.”

She spread her arms wide, indicating the room’s inhabitants almost childishly. Everything the girl did was youthfully energetic, swirling around wherever she was with wild abandon and leaving you unable to study her face for too long, unable to trace the dual heritage there with your eyes, to discern whether the ever-so-slight slant of her eyes sculpted her appearance with a Japanese flavor, or whether the almost cherubic appearance of her bony face was more obvious of the Russian blood running through her veins, filtered down her father’s side of the family.

“Sollux, you’re the best hacker pretty much ever. You’re always saying that.”

“Well, yeah, I gueth I’m better than… pretty much everyone elthe, but I-“

“Karkat, you’re a brilliant fighter. And your disguises are perfect, you’ve never failed to fool anybody outside this room.”

“I’m a field leader too…” he grumbled weakly.

“Of course. And Tavros. Yeah, you’re crippled, but that doesn’t stop you being so especially useful. Even if you can barely walk without your leg braces, we’ve all seen you drive.”

The half-Spanish boy blinked, lamely scratching at his undercut hair upon being properly addressed. “Uh… I don’t know… I suppose that I am okay…”

“You’re much better than okay. And I want everyone here to raise their hand if they’ve ever. EVER. Seen one of my plans go wrong in ANY way.”

No hands went up.

“Okay, yeah, AA, tho we’ve got the thkills. But thith ith much bigger than any shit we’ve done before. How are we thuppothed to pull THITH off?”

“That’s the part I’m getting to.” She smiled wider, stretching a little as she leaned forward, and everyone else did too, drawn in by that energy she had about her, that aura that leapt out at you, wrapped around you, screamed TRUST ME. LISTEN TO ME.

“Listen very carefully. So here is what we’re going to do…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Karkat you have a potty mouth
> 
> Sorry this took so long and is so poorly written, gomen
> 
> We'll be introducing a new main character next chapter!


End file.
